Quicksilva thoughts...

With little presented evidence of an "opt out" solution increasing the number of organs available for donation, I can't help but feel this is a sensible decision. Taking into consideration the large reported costs for providing an electronic opt-out system, when we already have in place an "opt in" solution seems wasteful, when I believe the main issue is public awareness.

It is therefore good news that the taskforce have concluded that resources would be better prioritised on raising awareness and improving understanding of organ donation. Measuring success will be easy... has the campaign led to an increase in organ donor numbers? A regular review of this success will be critical in meeting the targets set out by the Health secretary.

If raising public awareness doesn't lead to an increase in donors then maybe we should be more direct, tackling the reasons why people aren't opting in.

Quicksilva thoughts...

The people (and companies) who took on this colossal project may have underestimated how difficult it would be. With the economic crisis happening right now, it's not exactly a great time for the public to be reminded of how much this system costs. Some may be thinking the money spent on developing this system could have been used for better causes.

Although I am keen to see this system work (making it a step closer to the digital world that we only know of from films like 'Minority Report' and 'I Robot'), why not hand it over to one of the IT giants like Google or Microsoft.

Since they both lead the IT world and make huge profits - and they are known for their "kind heart" - I can only wish for them to take this challenge on as a pro bono project...

Quicksilva thoughts...

Microsoft has entered into the spirit of cloud computing with their announcement of "Windows Azure"; a platform that will enable developers to host and manage .NET applications on the internet and provide access to other Microsoft products online. This is a significant break from their traditional software model and positions them alongside Amazon and Google, who already have their own comparable cloud offerings: Amazon EC2 and Google App Engine.

The advantage for the developer is that they needn't worry about environment sizing and maintenance because the cloud grows as the application grows and application upgrades are applied to one place. Additionally, the cloud enables applications to access other services/data that are registered with the user (e.g. online documents, email, single sign-on). The advantage to the user is that they can run the "ethereal software" from any device, anywhere in the world.

Of course, there are concerns about ownership and longevity: if your data/application is hosted in the cloud, does it really belong to you? Can the provider deprecate functionality that forces you to upgrade your application? These are early days; however, the essence of this computing paradigm is positive: applications can grow and integrate easily and be more useful!

Quicksilva thoughts...

It's an interesting debate, and as I'm new to the Healthcare space since joining Quicksilva, my view is that I'm against the motion. Mainly for selfish reasons in that if we introduce adherence to international standards then normally it's the US standards that get adopted because of their market size and large influential suppliers.

My limited experience is that US organisations seem to want to rule the world, thus the US healthcare system suppliers would want to develop international operations and would find it easier to build a UK presence if we are using their standards. This would ultimately reduce the opportunity for my company in the UK…and our own plans to excite the market!

But hey, we are leaders in HL7 interoperability anyway...

Quicksilva thoughts...

Having just invested in a Wii as a Christmas present for my husband (no seriously, it is for him!) and having a young child I anticipate that this new family phenomenon will be hitting our household soon.

However I would hate to think that this is relied upon as the new way in which a family spends 'quality time' together.

Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to jump into Mario Kart and race round a track and it goes without saying I will obviously be standing pride of place on the winning podium but like all things – in moderation. I still want a family trip to the park to be fun and not a chore.

You have to hand it to these computer giants; they have cottoned on to a good ol' fashioned family value and added the 21st century twist to it.

Gone are the years of 'solitary' computer games, target the 'family' market and hey presto it is combination that won't fail.